[Zhenya , the Chair of the Friends of Oleksandriya]
While efforts continue to bring peace back to wartorn Ukraine, people in Bath are seeking help is tending to the needs to those directly affected by the conflict.
The soldier veterans coming back from the front. People who are often amputees and in need of treatment to help them adapt to a new way of life.
Marian McNeir MBE is a former mayor of Bath and currently founder member of the Friends of Oleksandriya, our partner city in Ukraine.
She writes:
“We are appealing to anyone who might know of any equipment no longer needed. This could be gym equipment, disability aids, exercise bikes and especially active wheelchairs.
We can collect the equipment and have storage facilities in Bath before it is transported to Oleksandriya by the end of September.”
If anyone would like to make a financial donation, the Rotary Club of Bath acts as our bankers – details can be provided.”
She then sent me this official press release.
Bath’s partner city in Ukraine, Oleksandriya, is desperately in need of equipment for a newly created Rehab Centre to provide treatment for veterans coming back from fighting at the front.
The veterans are often amputees and in need of physiotherapy and occupational therapy to help them adapt to a new way of life.
The Friends of Oleksandriya is a charitable association based in Bath and with the Rotary Club as its bankers. They have already provided generators for the hospitals, an ambulance for the children’s hospital and a specially adapted taxi for disabled people.
The Rehab Centre is attached to the main hospital ( Oleksandriya has a similar population to Bath ) and provides treatment for 40 plus patients, mainly amputees.
The doctors there have told us they urgently need active wheelchairs, which can enable patients to return to a more normal life.
Disability aids and gym equipment like exercise bikes are also urgently needed – we have already been given a large amount of prosthetics, which are now on their way to Ukraine.
There are 1.3 million veterans in Ukraine, with numbers increasing daily. Many are lonely because their wives and families are living in safety in other countries. Bath has 400 Ukrainian refugees.
Oleksandriya also wants to provide a Veterans Hub to provide a safe place for veterans to support each other and adapt to a very different way of life .
Disability aids and gym equipment are urgently needed for the Hub as well.
We would like to appeal to Newseum readers to get in touch with Zhenya , the Chair of the Friends of Oleksandriya, who has personally delivered powdered baby milk and humanitarian aid, including 2 ambulance cars in the last few months.
Zhenya has met veterans and talked to hospital staff, and can give you further information about all the equipment so urgently needed.
Please contact her on 07568500828 / ZALShkil@outlook.com
The suffering is much worse in Gaza and the West Bank because of Israel’s genocide. Money is better spent on relieving suffering there rather than Ukraine.